Exploring the Constitution Part 6: The Preamble

After five columns to lay the groundwork for our explorations, this time we will finally get into the text of the Constitution. The Preamble is one part of the document to which most of us have been exposed in school. It is short enough to repeat in its entirety here.

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

This is a majestic sentence, truly a fitting start in laying the foundation for a new nation. It also states succinctly the reasons for the existence of the Constitution. Thus it makes sense for us to look at it before we study the rest of the document.

The Preamble lists six purposes for which the Constitution was "ordained and established." All of these fit well with the primary purpose of government in general: to protect the rights of citizens from encroachments by others, both foreign and domestic. A "more perfect Union" was needed in order better to “provide for the common defense” against European aggression. It would also make it possible to "establish Justice" uniformly among the states, and to prevent interstate conflicts which could disturb "domestic Tranquility." All of the above would tend to "promote the general Welfare" and "secure the Blessings of Liberty" which are the birthright of citizens of their day and our own.

The use of the term "general Welfare" in the Preamble and later in Article I, Section 8 has been a source of contention since the Constitution was first proposed. There was a significant body of citizens who strongly opposed ratification of the new compact. Known as the Anti-federalists, they included such undisputed patriots as Patrick Henry. Among other things, the Anti- federalists objected to the inclusion of such a vague term on the grounds that it could be used by unscrupulous politicians to justify any national government actions.

Supporters of the move to ratify the Constitution ridiculed these concerns. The Federalist Papers were articles published by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay to explain and defend the design for the new government. In Federalist Paper No. 41, Madison called the objections "stooping to such a misconstruction." He argued at length that the general welfare clause was merely a "general phrase" which was explained in detail by the sentences following it, enumerating the specific powers granted to Congress. The idea that the term "general welfare" would take precedence over the specific limitations he described as "an absurdity."

Any exposure to the news in our day is enough to show that the fears of Henry’s partisans were not so ridiculous after all. Recently, for example, a network news program showed a doctor trying to justify a federal edict to ban outdoor smoking. The "learned" doctor cited the general welfare clause of the Constitution as the government’s authority to institute such a ban. Others have used the same reasoning to push us into our current mess of welfare and over-regulation. Some demagogues would even have us believe that the Constitution’s "welfare" refers to the enforced charity that goes by the same name today. Politicians really do seem to think that the Constitution authorizes any measure that they believe would contribute to the general welfare. Madison apparently underestimated the audacity of those who would expand the powers of government.